A point of clarification. Sorry if I repeat some of what I've said in an earlier post.
M Lavingarz states, "you need to know that the City Council is about to revoke a law controlling the concentration of supportive housing." This is not accurate. The issue is not before the City Council at this time, nor is it scheduled to be considered. (For the complete contents of what is under consideration at this time, go to the "Housing Policy" link on the Minneapolis Planning Dept website.) It has been correctly noted on this list, however, that the Shelter Advisory Board recommended to the City Council that the spacing requirement for supportive housing be repealed. (This was forwarded to the City Council a few months back as part of a package of changes they felt would support the development of supportive housing/affordable housing) I think it is also fair to say that policy makers understand that some would strongly oppose this change. If the City Council considers this change at some point in the near or distant future, the subject matter of the change will be introduced at a City Council meeting and it will be referred to staff to draft specific language and do an analysis of the pros and cons of making the change. A few months will go by. :-) Then Notice will be mailed to all City neighborhoods 21 days before the formal public hearing at the City Planning Commission. It certainly is valid to request that, if scheduled for consideration, the matter should be the subject of wider conversation among Minneapolis citizens and housing advocates prior to its formal consideration. That's the take-home message I'm getting from the discussion on the list. Now, stepping back. . . There should be nothing surprising about learning that housing advocacy organizations and boards are advocating changes to regulations. That's happening at all levels of government--federal, state, metropolitan and local. And that community representatives may not agree with all proposed changes. Or that there are different ways of looking at things between different communities. Or between different advocacy organizations. Or between different individuals. What is important is that a full conversation occur in which all points of view are respected, following which the policy makers will need to make the hard decisions they were elected to make. Tom Leighton City Planner Seward Message: 16 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 16:28:42 EST To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] If you live near supportive housing you need to know that the City Council is about to revoke a law controlling the concentration of supportive housing. Supportive housing houses adults or children who are challenged in some way and require on-site supervision. These facilities include housing for chemically, mentally or physically disabled residents as well as recently released offenders. When well run, these facilities provide the vital care to those in need. Probably the facility near you presents few or no problems. However, the law that limits the spacing of supportive housing to one per 1/4 mile radius (Chapter 536.20) is under assault. Without citizen intervention, this spacing law will be eliminated. If eliminated, there will be no limit to the number of supportive housing facilities that can be legally clustered near the one that now exists near your home. Your neighborhood may end up like several others in the city: islands of hyper-concentrated supportive housing. Without Chapter 536.20 there will be nothing to prevent such extreme clustering of supportive housing in your neighborhood. Now is the time to speak out. Call or e-mail Mayor Rybak at R.T. [EMAIL PROTECTED] or the Chair of the Zoning Committee, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tell them that supportive housing should not be clustered. Suppportive housing is a good thing, but clustering them is a bad idea for the residents of such housing and for neighborhoods. It should be spread out throughout the city. After all, 38 of Minneapolis' neighborhoods have no supportive housing. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
